The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1887-08-13


I is fat with such comparison; whereas, II W
\. compare the highest paid Belgium with tn
s lowest paid American labor, the America
I would appear equally degraded, All sue
!, partial comparisons are misleading, Tn
4 general average alone should be considered
2 The Consular Dstrc, Of Brussels Is tn
: largest glass producing district of Belgium
n and on page l,0sS of the Consular Report
, of 1884 Consul Williams gives the averng,
wages Of glass workers an this entire Con
|, sular district And reducing the time Il
days OF ten hours each, we find that TIT
average wages paid to blowers is IS 90 pei
day On page 6, above referred to, is giver
the average paid to American glass workers
from which we find American blowers re-
ceive $500 per day. If the Belgium glas.
blower is pauper, then with us 80 cent
makes prince; and using same authorities
we find Belgium first teasers receive 81
per day; American. 80 30; Belgium second
teasers, 500, American, 81 49, Belgium
third teasers, Sl.70, American, STA; Bel.
GUM hatteners, Sl.75, American, So 50;
Belgium gatherers, $l74, American, 81 ~;
Belgium laborers, Coo, American, 81 Is.
And so through the whole scale. With skilled
labor the difference in wages is slight; it be-
comes mere and more marked as we ap
proach the unskiled, until we reach the
common laborer, where wages are 80 PER
cent less than here. And so through all the
industries, the skilled or protected aborer
receives but little more here than there. 1t
is the commOn-the unprotected labOrer-
that receives 100 per cent greater wages
here
The District of Charlevoi is another glass
producing district, and AT page 427 of the
FIRST Annual Report Of the Commissioner OF
Labor for 1886 is given the condition OF two
typical families of glass workers in this dis.
,rict. The first is a glass blowers family
of six. One son Is years of age is hattcncr
A daughter of II and boy of Is work in
factory, Their total earnings is $l,023l0:
total expenditures, S770,G5. Surplus of this
pauper for savings bank" S25245. The
glass maker has family Of fiye--two boys
aged Q and years and girl Of G. Boys work
in factory. Total earnings, $4,000: total
expenses, Sil635; surplus, S26 60. And
these are given by the Commissioner as
types of Belgium labOrers in glass; and on
page | II the Commissioner gives the labor
cost of glass in Belgium at 1886 per cent
In America, as we have seen, it is but AZ 40
per cent, and in La Sale county 81 per cent.
Columns might be filled with these labor
statistics; but to the general reader they are
dry at best and absolutely forbidding to
most; hence, | refrain from giving more
The above are sufficient to outline the
general average of wages and condition
of Belgium labors in glass, and to show how
totally unfounded in truth or reason is the
assertion that our sc per cent duty upon
window glass in necessary to compensate for
the difference in the scale of foreign and do.
nestle wages in glass production.
| have confined this investigation to wages
in Belgium because nearly all our imported
glass comes from there. Most of the re. |
mainder comes fro.a England and Wales,
where wages in the glass industry are higher,
especially as we approach the unskiled lab
orer. The Consul General ct London, in
all the reports Of all our Consuls
in England and Wales, at page 946 of Re.
ports for 1884, gives the general average of
wages in all the trades and employments in
England and Wales, and excluding the tex.
iron, metals, mines, &c.,-at
Sl,l2l per day, in which the common laborer
s set down at Soc. SO comparison with Bel
GUM labor must be entirely right and salts
actory.
Again, it should be borne in mind that our
census year of 1880 was the most prosperous
rear for the industries since the close of the
var; and since 1880 wages in glass, as in all
he industries, have materially declined. If {
wages anywhere are held near the point at
which they were in 1880, it is not because of |
he Sc per cent protection to the industry, {
tut purely by force of Labor Unions which :
lave, in some favored places, held wages
teady in spite of it, And here, let me ask I
he glass worker, In passing if protection 8
ives him high wages and steady exploy.
nent, what is the object of his Labor Unions9 G
md if his Unions are necessary to keep up q
liz wages, does protection then give him
What is claimed for it: high wages and t
teady employment? If his Unions are neces. I
airy, is it as auxilliaries supporting the pro c
ective system, or as shields protecting him t
gainst its operation? If protection is for the L
lbOrer, and gives him what is claimed for it, c
not the existence of these Unions a crime Il
gainst capital and menace to the indus e
ries' Can these combinations of laborers be v
Justified upon other grounds than as offsets c
gainst combinations, under protection, of b
Employers? We shall see: n